headache

every time i play with the back of my hair, i start getting the pinching pain in the back of my head. any ideas what this could be about? I been separating often, since i am not doing any other maintenance, I think it has to do with that.

my girl checked it she said that there is a lot of hairs that were tangled with different dreads, we did some separating...headache gone! I am scared of separating honestly, it think it makes the roots of my locs weak, so i been leaving them alone. is there a right way to do it? because i end up having to break apart most of the hairs and I don't think that's healthy at all.

soaring eagle said:

hmm possibly ive actualy nheverr had a headache in thr back always front or temples have someone look close at the scalp there any sores bumps ingrown hairs?

yah, he's right. Hairs from one side of your head can get tangled into a dread on the other side and will constantly be taut. That can be painful and if it's not dealt with and your dreads get long and heavy it can cause patches of thinning hair.

I kinda know what you're talking about with the soreness. I have a tender scalp and something that I learned this month(4th month) is that although you may be tempted not to separate- do it anyway!!! You're just going to have a REAL mess on your hands if you let it go on for too long and then scissors have to be involved. And to keep those locks in check from getting in each other's business here's what I've found works:

Pretend you're putting your hair up in a pony tail. Grab a small cluster(four or five) of locks and move them up in the direction of a pony tail. If you feel odd pulling going on then you've got to narrow down which lock(s) are causing the discomfort. Once you narrow down who the naughties are then you can look at them individually and decide what to do. Most of the time you're going to have to pull a few hairs out(not OUT, just ... away from) from that lock and then loosely spin those loose hairs around a neighboring lock to get it out of the way. They'll eventually decide the best place to go.To decide which hairs need to be taken out of that lock, move the lock in several directions and see which way it 'pulls' badly and painfully. If it hurts to move it to the right then the offending hairs are much more than likely on the left. Same thing with north and south. Sometimes there are loops that are just pulling funny.

If you've got a few really naughty locks that chronically do this then I'd suggest putting a bead near the upper 1/4 of the lock to keep it from getting so hungry. Say you have four locks that eat eachother, put a bead on two of them. That'll let the other two mature a bit more and then in a week or two you can switch which locks the beads are put on. I have a cluster of locks on either side of my head which do this. Obnoxious as hell but at least I found a way to deal with the little buggers until they sort themselves out.

I see. this problem only happens when i do not maintain it and let them be. So it is confusing in the sense that if i were to retwist once in a while this will happen less often. i guess it is about finding a healthy balance in regards to maintaining. I haven't done so in over 4 months. Thanks for the input !

No no no no no! Don't retwist! did I create confusion when I said "loosely spin those hairs around another lock." ? Clarification: get the offending, intruding hairs out of the lock they are enmeshed in and then leave them alone. They'll find where they're supposed to go eventually since that lock obviously isn't it since it is creating pain for you. Or it'll eventually create a baby dread once a few more hairs grow in there. But if lightly spinning those loose hairs around a nearby lock creates a sort of OCD "I must twist my hair" feeling in your brain then by all means-- don't do it. Just pull the hairs out of that lock and then leave them be by their lonesome.

Separating is different than retwisting. Twisting is maintenance and maintenance creates thinning hair because of the pulling involved at the root. Separate them properly at least every time you wash and you'll be good to go.

No pulling/twisting at the roots = healthy locks.

Fire your loctition. Pronto. We don't want to see you in the Lock Recover forum area.